LOL that's my view... yes the Govt snoops and collects data on us , but private enterprise already has 10X as much. They know how and where you shop, what you buy, your preferences... have all your contact data. WTF do they NOT know? very damm little.... They probably know how many times you had sex in the last week/month, with whom, and how long it lasted !

. . . and which contraceptive you used (if any).

What pisses me off about private enterprise is they SELL your data to others and make $ wo your permission.... BTW you capitalistic MoFos, where's MY cut of the moola ?

There are many taking sides in this debate that collection of metadata is the tryannical Big Brother regime. (These people need to get a grip.)

In and of itself, this program may not be Big Brother, but it sure is a huge step in that direction. You may or may not trust the Obama administration to not abuse all that information just sitting there waiting to be accessed, but what about future administrations? Or more likely, some mid-level government worker bee with issues of some sort and just enough access and smarts to start playing with the data? Judicial review and "safeguards" only work if people play by the rules (and if everybody did, then there wouldn't be programs like this in the first place ;-) It's the people who ignore those rules that we have to worry about -- and given the past history of some administrations, that's a very legitimate concern ...

Also, given that the argument seems to be "but we're not spying on US citizens, just everyone else on the planet," if you're anyone but a US citizen living in the US, you've got to be feeling really warm and fuzzy about our government right now =P

There are many taking sides in this debate that collection of metadata is the tryannical Big Brother regime. (These people need to get a grip.)

In and of itself, this program may not be Big Brother, but it sure is a huge step in that direction. You may or may not trust the Obama administration to not abuse all that information just sitting there waiting to be accessed, but what about future administrations? Or more likely, some mid-level government worker bee with issues of some sort and just enough access and smarts to start playing with the data? Judicial review and "safeguards" only work if people play by the rules (and if everybody did, then there wouldn't be programs like this in the first place ;-) It's the people who ignore those rules that we have to worry about -- and given the past history of some administrations, that's a very legitimate concern ...P

Reality check:

Digital records of every digital transaction are not going to disappear, whether it's government or private corporations.

There will always be criminals in government and contracted workers.

No matter the safegaurds, someone will hack it.

Judicial oversight does not have to be a rubber stamp for 100% of warrant requests.

Legislated regulations must be enforced.

Congress does need to be filled with idiots who ignore their legislative responsibilities and act only for political gain.

The media will ignore history and fact, sensationalize any story and be politically influenced.

How does our country begin to fix this? Seems step #1 is paranoia (and we may be stuck here for a while)

It's not paranoia if it's really happening -- go back, say, 20 years and tell me we have the same protection against government surveillance and intrusion as we did in 1993.

The reality check is that 4th Amendment guarantees have been steadily eroded in favor of a more surveillance-oriented state "for our protection." Add to that Corporations having the same rights as human beings, money being free speech, the Executive having the power to detain foreign nationals and execute American citizens without due process (we're at war with Oceania Terrorists, after all!), and a Congress apparently run by eight-year-olds ... at this point a little healthy paranoia is probably a good thing ;-)

How the country fixes all of these is first to recognize what's been happening -- which is already taking place, albeit with attendant over- and under-reactions from various points of view. Then we can have that conversation Barry was talking about and hopefully establish what kind of society we want to remain/become in the face of advancing technology and capability ...

Xplain's use of MacNews, AppleCentral and AppleExpo are not affiliated with Apple, Inc. MacTech is a registered trademark of Xplain Corporation. AppleCentral, MacNews, Xplain, "The journal of Apple technology", Apple Expo, Explain It, MacDev, MacDev-1, THINK Reference, NetProfessional, MacTech Central, MacTech Domains, MacForge, and the MacTutorMan are trademarks or service marks of Xplain Corp. Sprocket is a registered trademark of eSprocket Corp. Other trademarks and copyrights appearing in this printing or software remain the property of their respective holders.

All contents are Copyright 1984-2010 by Xplain Corporation. All rights reserved. Theme designed by Icreon.